I found this beautiful polyester fabric with a leaf texture to it.
According to the photos on Alleycatscratch.com the fabric is
silk with a paisley swirl pattern, but I fell in love with this fabric
as soon as I saw it and the color was perfect. (As was the price!)

I used the version C of McCall's 4083, lengthened the skirt
and added fullness. I also used gold braid on the sleeves instead of the cream
of the dress in the movie.

For the corset I used the pattern from
The Fashionable Past

I used gold thread to do the cross-stiching so that it would
stand out more and dress it up a bit.

I didn't have the time or experience to do the
embroidery well and was going to use gold
trim, but just didn't think it looked good enough.

Which is how I first came across the idea of fabric paint embroidery.

I did it on strips of fabric that I sewed on because if I made a mistake,
I didn't want it to stick to the costume!

Tutorial for Fabric Paint Embroidery

Another Website with excellent references for this costume:

http://www.costumersguide.com/shieldmaiden.shtml

For a quick and dirty shield maiden vest, this was made
from a snug T-shirt and gold fabric paint.